Pfenning's Organic Farms in New Hamburg, Ontario, employs Canadians and Jamaican migrant farm workers to work its fields and packing warehouse. The owners would like to see its Jamaican workers afforded better pathways to becoming permanent residents and have open work permits that give workers the ability to easily change employers. Jim Rankin/Toronto Star

Syed Hussan, the executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, says the federal government must create enforcement mechanisms for these new guidelines to ensure the rights of workers are upheld.

“We need proactive enforcement,” said Hussan, who’s also a member of the Migrant Rights Network, a coalition of self-organized groups of refugees and migrants.

“We are very far away from instituting actual protection for essential migrant workers.”

Employment and Social Development Canada published the guidelines late last month, which include instructions that workers must self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival to Canada and employers must pay workers for the time they spend in self-isolation.

Hussan, though, said many workers aren’t aware of their rights because the guidelines are only available in English. He said organizations like MWAC created education materials to share with workers so they could understand employment rights and social distancing.

“What is the point of a guideline if the workers who it’s supposed to protect doesn’t know [the guideline],” he asked.

Hussan said some members have been told to work by their employers, despite the self-isolation guidelines, and then were refused pay when they declined, to adhere to self-isolation measures. He also said some workers are in quarantine and employers aren’t providing groceries or medication they’ve requested, with local churches instead stepping in.

He said the federal government should create calling and internet hotlines for foreign workers to file complaints about their employers anonymously, as well as to have regular spot checks at farms where migrant workers are hosted.

“We need proactive enforcement,” he said.

Keith Currie, first vice president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said despite some frustration among members about not having access to labourers during their self-isolation period, farmers are prepared to do whatever is necessary to maintain Canada’s foreign labour force — including following the protocols set in place by the government.

“The government made it very clear that [migrant workers] are to be paid for these two weeks, so [farmers] will do what they have to do,” he said.

Currie, who’s also president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said farmers would like the government to include migrant workers under the employment insurance benefits that have been announced for Canadian workers rather than paying them out of pocket. Meanwhile, he said proper payment to foreign workers will be documented through a businesses’ tax filing.

“[Famers] will build that unto their business case, and they will pay [migrant workers] for the 30 hours a week while they’re in isolation,” he said. “It’s all on the record.”

Hussan also said migrants workers deserve to be treated like permanent workers as a permanent part of Canada’s labour force. As a part of this, he said the government should extend EI benefits to workers who chose not to travel to Canada this year due to coronavirus concerns. Workers who grow ill from COVID-19 should be covered under Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), but Hussan said some workers don’t have access to valid SINs because they just arrived in the country and Service Canada offices are closed. He said the federal government should make CERB available on the basis of expired SINs for workers that can’t renew their number this year.

Hussan said quarantine measures are showing the necessity of “urgent immigration reform,” including a national housing strategy, noting that workers with temporary status can’t enforce their rights “even when facing a deadly pandemic.”

He pointed to a COVID-19 outbreak in a Kelowna B.C. nursery, where 14 migrants workers have tested positive for the virus, with a total of 63 in self-isolation. The migrant workers arrived in Kelowna from outside Canada on March 12, before any travel restrictions were in place.

“Worker lives are being put into danger because of inaction by the federal government,” Hussan said.

Marielle Hossack, press secretary for Employment and Workforce Development Minister Carla Qualtrough, said all employees coming to Canada to help secure our country’s food supply deserve a safe working and living environment. She said employers have an an important role to play in helping prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19.

“Our government has provided guidance to employers of temporary foreign workers to ensure they meet public health requirements regarding accommodations, hygiene and working conditions,” she said in an emailed statement to iPolitics. “We continue to engage with key stakeholders to ensure this program supports the Canadian economy and protects the health and safety of Canadians and workers.”

Currie urged that farmers are willing to do “whatever is necessary” to maintain the foreign worker’s program, noting that 16,000 agriculture jobs went unfilled last year.

“It’s desperately needed because we just can’t get Canadians to fill those jobs,” he said. “We just want the public to know, there still are jobs available should they choose to work on a farm, but these foreign workers are key to food production in Canada.”